My Yoga Teacher Training Story

In my “Who Am I” post, I wrote about my YTT, which I completed with @chi_kri. In that post, I wrote:

“I have so much to say about Chi Kri, but I’ll save that for a future post” - well; here it is…

If you’ve listened to my videos, you might have heard me say, I started practising yoga properly in Nov 2021. This is when my consistent practice of yoga began. I was 41.

My first experience of yoga was in 1990, when I was just 10!

At the time, my mum was practising with a lady named Tara Patel. Tara has a son Neil, who had just turned 18. Tara told Neil, “Many of my students have children that are the age you could teach.” And so just like that, I had my first experience of yoga - with Neil Patel - at the age of 10.

I was a naughty student. I spent more time sent to the corridor, to reflect on my behaviour, than practising on the mat. I didn’t last very long, but the exposure to yoga was there & it became imprinted into my mind.

Fast forward to 1998, in the final months of my A-levels. Feeling stressed, something told me to go to yoga. I contacted Neil & was back on the mat. Neil was now fully committed to yoga teaching & the Chi Kri school had taken shape. And me? This time a much better student, spending the full class time on the mat & not in the corridor 😂

But once again, my practice didn’t last very long, maybe 2-3 months.

After university, I lived & worked in Japan for 4 yrs. On returning I had a reunion with some friends. After dinner one of them suggested going to a party in the suburbs of N.London. By pure coincidence Neil was there. We spent most of the night talking & my friends were wondering who is this random person Kamil is spending the whole night talking to!!

Through that chat I rejoined Neil’s classes. This was in 2007 & I was 27. At the time, I was starting my career in the UK & through my job I was traveling a lot overseas. This prevented me from attending yoga regularly so once more my practice didn’t last more than a few months.

Fast forward to Nov 2021. If you’ve read my “Who Am I” post, you’ll know yoga came to be at a time of need. This time…

I was committed to my practice & rolled out my mat every day. I succeeded past the first 2-3 months & once more months of daily yoga passed, I was healing.

As I regained my confidence & my life, I wanted ANSWERS

How did it help me?

As I looked for answers, by coincidence I received an email from Neil about a YTT that he was starting. With the history my family has with Chi Kri, it was a natural choice for me to join this so I could find the answers I needed.

It began in April 2023, a 15-month course, meeting monthly. Many yoga courses are much shorter, some even covering the 200 hours in 1 month. This long approach was amazing. As I look back, stretching out the learning has really allowed me to embed the teachings.

Our course was very comprehensive. The first few months were on academic study, learning about the philosophy of yoga, metaphysics & more. From here we moved to asana practice & finally back to academic study & pranayama.

During the course, I felt frustrated there wasn’t enough asana practice but as time went by, I started to learn that this was my ego. I realised this asana practice – which I was hooked on – was something I could do myself, but the spiritual teaching Neil was giving us, was completely unique. It gave me immeasurable value to learn about our bigger purpose in life and how I can grow through this knowledge.

Now that I have graduated, I feel 100% confident I chose the right course. It has opened the door for me to the big picture of yoga and the joys of spreading its value through teaching.

And, about the asana practice, we spent 6 modules going through teaching asanas & a further 2 modules on pranayama – so in the end there was plenty of asana to satisfy my ego!

I find myself now in a position where many of my questions have been answered. I have the foundation to continue growing whilst I spread the wonders of yoga through my teaching.

More than anything, I am blessed that the universe aligned me to yoga and created a great play where Neil & Chi Kri kept popping up in my life to help put me on this new path I have chosen.